UPPER MERION — A proposed move to a lower-level office in the township building and a new, $6,954 charge for renting the township office space prompted the Upper Merion tax collector to move her office out of Upper Merion’s Freedom Hall into the Comtrust Federal Credit Union building at 720 Moore Road two months ago.

Rose Hykel, the elected Republican tax collector, has won the past five tax collector elections. In the most recent election, she got 68 percent of the vote.

During her tenure, the tax collector’s office was located on the top floor of the township building in a rent-free space near the township police station. Hykel and her two part-time employees, Sara and Susan, shared the office which had a walk-up service window and a security slot for documents and payments.

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The supervisors, following state law, adopted a resolution on Jan. 10, 2013 setting the annual compensation for the tax collector from 2014 to 2017, designating the former park and recreation office space of about 366 square feet for the tax collector’s new office space and providing a $6,300 “stipend” to the tax collector for postage, printing and general office expenses. The resolution set Hykel’s annual payment at $29,213 in 2014, $29,943 in 2015, $30,692 in 2016 and $31,459 in 2017 for collecting the township real estate taxes and the waste generation fee.

Township supervisors are required to adopt the salary and expense resolution every four years before the tax collector election because the “winner” needs to know what the compensation and expense rules will include.

Hykel had used the upper-level office space in the township building “rent-free” for the past 16 years.

“It was specifically built to be the tax collector’s office. It had a service window, with nearby parking for the handicapped and it was an interior, secure office,” Hykel said. “The place they wanted me to move to was downstairs by the back door and did not have a service window. It was too small, unsafe and lacked (handicapped) parking. My customers are up in years and they are frequently handicapped. Downstairs there are two handicapped parking spots but they are not in convenient locations.”

Supervisors’ Chairman Greg Waks said, “the township has been very pressed for space in the township building and has been for a long time. We needed the space upstairs. This is something that Rose Hykel was very aware of.”

Waks said township officials were considering putting the township’s public information officer into the former tax collector’s office so residents with questions can interact with her at the service window.

“Nothing has been decided yet,” Waks said. “We were convinced she (Hykel) was going to move into that space. She completely blindsided us.”

Waks pointed out that Hykel “had months during the election campaign to tell us she was considering moving out of the township building and she never brought that up.”

“Previous supervisor boards, including Republican boards, have tried to get Rose to work with them on the space issue,” Waks said. “She constantly refused to do so.”

Disputes between township supervisors and elected tax collectors are not uncommon in Montgomery County. The Lower Providence supervisors moved Lower Providence tax collector Kirsten Deal, a Democrat, out of the township office that had been used by the previous tax collector in 2006 and moved the zoning officers into that space. The Lower Providence supervisors proposed she use a small space near the ladies room and planned to charge $1 per square foot.

Deal moved her office to First Niagra Bank on Egypt Road in 2006 and has remained there for the past eight years.

“It’s the most ridiculous thing,” Deal said about her early office location problems. “I’m collecting (tax) money for you.”

Hykel sent a one-page informational letter to all Upper Merion taxpayers in January announcing her new location and telephone number - 610-337-0636.

“We are not moving by choice. The board voted to move your tax office to an unsafe, very cramped location in the very back of the 1st floor of the township building. That location was totally unsafe because there was no police protection in the immediate vicinity. Our old location was literally within six feet of the police call center,” the letter said. “The back-of-building location had no such protection and is directly next door to the back door where anyone could quickly run in & out. The office has a huge open glass windowed wall which is totally inappropriate for a tax office for counting cash and processing checks.”

Hykel said she had been pleased by the move to the credit union location.

“It is secure and safe here. There is plenty of space,” she said. “The taxpayer will use the teller window that is marked for tax payments and they can always mail their payments in.”

The tax office collects $6.5 million in township real estate taxes each year, about $500,000 from the waste generation fee, $10.5 million in Montgomery County real estate taxes and about $60 million in real estate taxes for the Upper Merion Area School district each year. Each tax entity pays the tax collector’s office to perform tax collections.

The tax office handles tax bills for 27,000 residents and 10,250 parcels twice a year, several thousand businesses and hundreds of tax appeals. The office staff is frequently the first telephone call that residents make before they file a tax appeal, Hykel said.

Hykel, a real estate attorney for 34 years, has lived in Upper Merion for over 20 years. She served on the first economic development committee in Upper Merion and the Moore House committee to determine how to use the building. She has served on the board of directors of the King of Prussia Rotary Club.

“Moving here will not change our operation. We will still be responsive to our residents,” she said. “The only thing that will change is it will get better.”